Overture to a Dissolution
by ChimericalRomance
Summary: If it had never occurred to them that it would end like this, then they were blind. Spoilers for Chapter 82 onwards.
1. Chapter 1: Andante

Disclaimer: I do not own Code:Breaker nor any of it's characters. Which is good, because I could never draw as well as Akimine Kamijyo.  
A quick notice, as well, for those about to start reading; this occurs some time after Chapter 83; so expect major spoilers if you haven't read that far yet~

* * *

**Overture to a Dissolution**

Chapter One: Andante

_-do you see, friends?_  
_do you not see?_  
_how he shines_  
_ever brighter._  
_Star-haloed_  
_rising higher_  
_Do you not see?_

~'Liebstod', _Tristan und Isolde _by Richard Wagner

_

* * *

_

He was trash; the leftover scraps of a former life that were scattered to the wind years ago, and were now stuck as a static shape that never altered, always tangled in the same expressions and relations and emotions.

She, on the other hand, was brash. Hell, she was foolhardy enough to scratch diamonds, naive enough to make a seasoned sinner ashamed and outspoken enough to give even the deaf a splitting headache. She changed, twisted, and surprised him at every turn.

And she- that is, Sakurakouji Sakura- was currently staring directly at him, the so-called 'Ogami Rei' with eyes only just big enough to contain her rampant idealism. Close enough for him to smell the sunshine-lollypop scent that seemed to always be following her around, like a breath of fresh air.

Not that this was any kind of _romantic_ situation, mind you. If only his life were that easy.

"Ogami~"

_No_, that was _not _going to work. He was Code:06, with the left arm of the Code:Emperor, brother to the (recently deceased) 'Seeking One'.. He was _not _going to be defeated by mere puppy-eyes, not from _her _or the actual Puppy she was holding in her arms. Especially when one of them was a 4th Dan in both Karate _and_ Judo.

"Sakurakouji-san, I really don't think this is a good idea-"

Her expression turned into a scowl as he spoke, and as Ogami finished speaking he found himself being pointed at in a manner that practically screamed 'OBJECTION'.

"Don't pull that face with me! It's a great idea!"

A vein pulsed. The Noh mask was slipping.

"Ok... Well, in that case- It's a good idea, but I don't see the logic in it..."

Oh, if only she would blink at him bemusedly and say "What is this logic you speak of?" Maybe then his rare-kind, the one with a habit of trying to douse fires with hugs and curing a life of evil with words, maybe then she would make some semblance of sense to Ogami.

However, as it has already been stated that Code:06 lives his life on the highest difficulty setting possible, we can assume that is _not _how things went.

"The logic is clearly there! By helping the community, you will being to grow an attachment to the people of Shibuya, and then the next time you are even tempted to kill someone you can remember that you did this and are therefore a _good _person, and _good people don't kill_. See?"

Oh God. That tinkling noise? Yeah, that was Ogami's mind. Poor thing. He wasn't even going to _try _and argue with that.

"...But what are we doing here, Sakurakouji-san?"

"Hmm?" Blinked Sakura, suddenly noticing the people other than Ogami that surrounded her. "Weren't you listening? We're helping the community!"

_If by listening you mean 'suffering a brain aneurysm due to logic fail' then yes, I was listening._

Biting back the above reply, Ogami was on the verge of _calmly _reminding Sakura that if community service was enough to cure a blackened murderer's heart then they would've been using in place of the death penalty for years now when he felt an old, slightly greasy hand on his back.

Turning round, he saw their little discussion had gathered them some attention- in particular, the attention of this scraggly, bearded man before them.

"You's with that there Miss, eh?"

"Perfect!" Cried Sakura, figuratively leaping to Ogami's side. "Operation Help-A-Hobo is go!"

"No, no it's not-" Oh, who was he kidding? It was no use; Sakura was already deep in conversation with the homeless man, who in turn seemed to be deep in conversation with Mii-tan and Hii-tan. A sudden urge to smash the man's face in for... for being so _unsubtle _began to rise in Ogami, though he quashed it as best he could, listening instead to the conversation.

"So would you say you have any problems or issues we could help you with? We're doing a school project on helping the community."

And, yep, there was the lying face again. Well, surely that was enough to make the man turn away and leave them alon-

"Actually, I do have a problem..."

Oh God, what if he said it was his BO and demanded that they gave him a bath or something? Ogami had seen some horrors, but he didn't think he could see something like _that_ and stay sane.

"You do? Ogami would be happy to help!" Sakura exclaimed, to Ogami's horror.

"Haha... Well, y'see, bein' old and... lacking in 'modern sophistication' and all, it's been an awful long since I been able to feel a woman's curves on me hands..."

A confused look on Sakura's face. Ogami, on the other hand, practically breathed a sigh of relief. Now she would realise this was a bad idea, and they could get out of here-

"-I'm not sure how well Ogami could help with that kind of thing, but maybe if we found some padding-"

Noh mask face now lying shattered about his mental state, Ogami grabbed Sakura and pulled her away forcefully.

"Kya! Hey- Ogami- What're you-"

Turning back to the homeless person she'd just been propositioned by, Ogami gave a wide smile- that was thrown completely off point by the murderous intent in his eyes.

"I think we're done helping the community for today. Thank you for your co-operation."

Ignoring the complaints of both Sakura _and _the Hobo, Ogami walked off with the rare kind behind him and didn't stop until they were back in the main streets, and out of the back alleys he himself had been dragged down less than half an hour previous.

She was being quiet again. Ogami didn't like it when Sakura was quiet. Two minutes, without a word? It wasn't like her. Turning to her, Ogami was surprised to find his acquaintance was looking rather sorry for herself, facial expression quite similar to the one puppy in her arms had on it's face.

"I'm sorry, Ogami."

He looked at her, she got the '_what am I going to do with you_' meaning of it instantly, and all was forgiven. Sometimes it made him worry, how they could understand each other so easily with just the slightest of looks. It suggested a level of intimacy that, for him, was impossible to even hope to attain.

Even with her pulling stunts like this, he couldn't be angry. The fact that she was trying, even if her attempts were more trouble than they were worth, meant a lot to him. It was odd, having someone who believed in you. But not unpleasant. Never unpleasant.

"Let's go back. It's getting dark."

She nodded in response, and the two of them headed home together- to the President's mansion. As they lapsed back into their usual rhythm of conversation, Ogami began to let his mask slip once more, the amusement on his face at how she could recover so quickly from a near-molestation by hobo being hard to hide from _her_.

If it had been up to him, at that moment, things would've stayed as they were forever. He would have been content with that; just walking, the reality of his and her life miles away, a forgotten dream. Except that could never happen.

Nor would it.

Because Ogami, he was just trash. Something barely fit to be living. To skulk in the shadows, to _be _a shadow, something defined by the existence of persons separate from himself; that was his fate. Sakura, on the other hand...

A few days before, he had found himself staring at his hands intently, eyes examining every loop and whirl of the prints on his fingers, noticing the subtle differences that reminded him only one of his arms was his own- as far as he could 'own' anything. He had done horrible things with these hands. He had maimed, killed, bathed them in blood and fire and flesh.

However, with these hands he had also touched Sakurouji-san. The very idea that he had let something so impure touch her smooth skin... It gave him a feeling he couldn't describe.

At that point, it occurred to Ogami that although he couldn't burn her, it might be _her _who was scorching _him_.

The pair eventually reached the President's house, where as per usual everyone was waiting for them. Toki had been training with said cat-suited man all day, and was so tired he could barely tease the two of them for spending such extortionate amounts of 'private time' alone together. Yuki, on the other hand, was about as energetic as ever, although after smashing through _yet another _sliding-screen door in an attempt to 'Wake Four Up' he received a Rui-headbutt-to-the-face and was out for the rest of the evening.

That night, Ogami lay awake listening to the sounds that echoed through the house- trees swaying, Sakura breathing, birds soaring.

This peaceful menagerie, however, was quickly interrupted by the buzzing of his phone. Reaching over towards it, Ogami tried to see who it was from. A private number. Hmm.

"Yes?"

"Hello, Code:06."

He knew that voice anywhere.

"President."

"Life is treating you well?"

If there was one thing that really annoyed Ogami about Eden, it was that they still kept up the pretence of friendliness even when they knew he could see right through it. Why bother with something like that when it was nothing more than a waste of energy?

"Of course."

"We have an assignment for you."

Ah, that was more like it. Ogami had no room in his life for frivolities. At least, that's what he tried to convince

himself.

"I see."

"It's about the rare kind you've been observing."

His grip on the phone tightened slightly, without him realising it.

"What about her? She's done nothing out of the ordinary-"

"-She's been deemed a 'yet-to-be-seen-threat', Code:06, and must therefore be disposed of. I can trust you will do that, hmm?"

The grip slacked.

_What..._

"Code:06?"

He had been expecting it to happen, _waiting_ for it to happen, but at the same time...

"Is something wrong?"

It was at this point he realised something. He was actually _hesitating_. Hesitating wasn't something he did very often. But why would he hesitate for her? Maybe, maybe this meant...

_No._

Of course not. Evil must be erased. Hesitation was not a liberty he could take.

Ogami's eyes turned colder, more withdrawn; to a passerby it would've seemed that they turned into something dead.

"Of course not, sir. Consider it done."

A chuckle from the other end.

"Good boy."


	2. Chapter 2: Poco a Poco Crescendo

**Overture to a Dissolution**

Chapter Two: Poco a Poco Crescendo

_Stranger than you dreamt it -  
__can you even dare to look or bear to think of me:  
__This loathsome gargoyle, who burns in hell,  
__but secretly yearns for heaven,  
__secretly . . .  
__secretly . . .  
_~'Stranger Than You Dreamt It', _Phantom of the Opera_ by Andrew Llyod Webber

* * *

He had written her a song.

He hadn't wanted to; of course not. Trash like him could only press the right keys at the right time, a mere instrument that went through the motions already set out for him by some long-dead composer. When he sat at a stall, he was nothing more than an extension of the piano itself; after all, how could someone who didn't exist create anything?

Still, he had written her a song; almost by accident. A little melody that would curl it's way into his head when she was near his thoughts, as intrusive and at the same time elusive as the girl herself felt at times. Before Ogami knew it, the cogs in his mind had begun whirring and turning, spinning out notes and chords and movements until he found himself sitting in front of the piano at school, staring at the keys and feeling the music he had composed in his head urging to get out.

It was idiotic. Music wasn't good for anything, not really. It didn't help you burn evil, or keep you alive when you were hungry and needed sustenance. He would've been miles better off investing his time in training. Still...

There was no-one else in the room; he had looked around surreptitiously to make sure of that. Convincing himself that if he could just play it the _once_ it would never bother him again, Ogami voiced his composition.

A light melody, of course; one that meandered harmoniously across both pitch and tempo; sometimes almost serene and other times more forceful and determined. After a while, Ogami stopped thinking and just let himself _play_, each sound flowing into each other to mimic what ran through his head, eac-

"Haven't heard that one before."

Before Ogami had even noticed, Toki had him in the usual slouchy, shoulder-arm hug that was pretty typical of him. He had been so focused he hadn't even noticed the smell of cigarettes that always hung around the Code:Breaker. Pathetic.

"I make it a habit of not playing the same song too many times to one person." He replied, as coolly as he could. "I don't want to sound like a broken record, after all."

Taking a drag of his cigarette, Toki puffed a cloud of smoke on Ogami, eyes decidedly unimpressed.

"No need to be so polite, Ogami. You're creeping me out~"

A nerve twitched. Ogami brushed off Toki's arm and stood up.

"Well then, you don't have to be so friendly with me, do you? If we're abandoning pretences..."

Toki grinned. "Such a dry guy. Makes me wonder why Sakura-chan can bear hanging with you all the time."

Ogami flinched slightly, and cursed himself inwardly when he noticed Toki's reaction to seeing that.

"Actually, where's Sakura-chan now? She's always attached to you, like you two are some sort of married couple of something-"

"-Shut it, Fourth." Ogami growled. Even someone just mentioning her name right now... It reminded him of what he had to do. What he had been ordered to do. What he was going to do.

"Touchy today, aren't we?" Toki teased, leaning forwards in his usual lazy manner. "I was just making sure you hadn't killed her already, I know you're not one for waiting around-"

Spinning round, Ogami launched a punch at the Code:Breaker's smug face, although Toki dodged easily, merely leaning over to the right. For a moment, their eyes connected, gazes blazing at each other. Then Ogami retracted his fist, Toki stood up straight and it was like nothing had happened.

"Who told you?"

"He was my father once. Besides, I think you'll find most of the others already know..."

Ogami ground his teeth. Great. Now his job was all the harder.

"So? You're not actually gonna do it, are ya?" Toki jeered. "Eden's dumb as always, asking _you _to do the job."

He looked at Ogami for reassurance; but was surprised to find none there- just the same, soulless look that reminded him of the first time they'd met. Fish-like eyes; cold and dead.

"Oi, that's a scary look you've got on your face. You eat something bad?"

"My own feelings are irrelevant. I was given the job to exterminate the evil, and I will perform it."

"EH?" Toki's shock would've been funny hadn't the situation the two of them were in been so tense. "Sakura-chan, evil? You've lost it!"

_Maybe I have. _Ogami thought, pushing past Toki and leaving him alone, in the piano room. His nearly finished cigarette balanced on his lower lip, and after inhaling one more puff of it, Toki put it out on the piano.

There was no way Ogami could kill Sakura-chan... Right? He was _much_ too whipped for that. Toki had seen him put on a sheep costume for her, and had had a _great _deal of fun uploading the picture of it to every image sharing website he could think of with the title "Erogami: A Perv in Sheep's Clothing". One does not simply wear such _delightful_ costume for anyone.

Then again...

_When it comes down to it_, he thought, leaning back against a wall behind him and lighting himself a new cancer stick to replace the old, _He's just Eden's dog. All he can really do is what he's told._

The more and more he thought about it, the angrier he felt. Yeah, sure, Ogami might refuse to kill Sakura-chan, but then someone else would. Eden had vast amounts of killers under it's belt, and the Code:Breaker's were just a small subsection of them. It wasn't a nice feeling, to remember that in the end you were just a pawn.

And why'd they pick a Code:Breaker to do it, anyway? They must've known that, as a rare kind, his powers would be pretty useless, right? Not that that helped her chances of survival in the slightest.

"Tch..." He murmured, suddenly feeling too apathetic to even say something cool. His laid-back angsting was interrupted, however, when a teacher came into the room, seeing him.

_ Ok, so maybe I should go._

"What are you..." She registered the cigarette, the wrong school uniform, the mark on the piano. Toki braced himself.

"DELIQUENT!"

Sakura stopped in front of the music room door. Was it her, or could she hear the sound of some kind of violent activity coming from inside?

She pressed her ear against the door. Well, whatever it was, it didn't exactly sound like a Beethoven. His compositions usually had decidedly less swearing. Standing back again, Sakura put her hand on the doorknob and was about to charge in and 'save the day' when-

"Hii-tan! Mii-tan!"

-she was groped by a senior. Although most people would've been fairly shocked, maybe even offended by this, it was becoming quite a regular occurrence for Sakura, who curiously addressed the culprit.

"What are you doing here, Fujiwara-Sempai?"

"Oooh, you found me out already..." Came the disappointed reply, followed by the removal of Nenene's hands from her chest. Breathing a sigh of relief, Sakura turned around only to be greeted by yet another familiar face.

"Heike!"

He had in his hands yet another one of his books, this one titled '_Saving Ryan's Privates_'. Sakura frowned.

"Heike, I thought it was _Saving Private Ryan_, not-"

"-Minus five points for explaining the joke, Sakura-chan." Heike interrupted. Behind the door they stood in front of, someone shouted "IT'S KIDS LIKE YOU THAT JUVVIE WAS MADE FOR!", quickly followed up by the smashing of a chair. At least, that's what it sounded like.

"Wow~" Nenene exclaimed, moving closer to the door so as to listen in. "It's like a soap opera in there-"

She would've finished her sentence, had Heike not grabbed Nenene out the way as the door she had her ear pressed to burst open. Sakura herself only missed being smacked in the face narrowly, but was quickest to recover and react to what she was seeing.

"Toki? What're you doing here?"

Toki, who'd been in the middle of making a getaway, noticed his sister and smiled almost sheepishly.

"Oh, you know me, Magness is a great studier-"

"GET BACK HERE YOU FOUL-MOUTHED EXCUSE FOR A STUDENT!" Came the screech of the infuriated teacher behind him, throwing another book at his head. Toki dodged it nonchalantly.

"...Yeah. I didn't realise there was a no-smoking rule in the school, see..."

Sakura was not impressed. "Are there any schools _without _no-smoking rules?"

"Well-" Toki started to say, before being rugby tackled by his assailant. The poor teacher was new, and she clearly had an idea or two on pupil discipline. Stepping forwards, Heike coughed politely. The teacher looked round, freezing in horror.

"Oh..."

If Code:02 had been wearing glasses, they'd have flashed. "As a student council member, I could not of course condone a student from another school smoking in this building... But I can't say I agree with the _manner_ this _punishment_ is being carried out, hmm?"

There was something ever so unsettling about Heike when he was being threatening. Probably it was that he was usually amused at the same time. And distinctly perverted. The effect on the teacher was so profound that she made no move to stop Toki as he pushed her off himself and stood up.

"Magness! Are you ok?" exclaimed Nenene, running up towards him. Toki started to grin, then looked at Sakura and stopped.

"Yeah... I'm fine. It'd take more than that to defeat the almighty alien Magness! Right?"

"What're you doing here anyway, Toki?" Sakura asked, over Nenene's cries of "Yay! Magness power!" The question seemed to make the Code:Breaker uneasy, and he glanced over at Heike before replying.

"Oh... I just wanted to see you, Sakura-chan." Leaning right over her with his arm round her neck, Toki gave Sakura his best pout. "Have you decided to ditch Ogami for me yet?"

*INSERT VIOLENCE HERE*

Ignoring the blubbering Toki, who was lying on the floor with a huge lump growing out his head (Fujuwara-Sempai idea of consolation involving repeatedly patting said bump whilst muttering 'there there'), Heike carried on the thread of conversation.

"Where is the sixth, anyway? He's usually stuck to you like a limpet..." A small 'fufufu' followed the statement, but Heike laughing like that after saying _anything_ was so common it wasn't worth putting in speech marks. Sakura's looked at the ground, sighing.

"I don't know. He didn't walk up to school with me today, either- he was gone before I woke up..."

Again, Heike and Toki looked at each other. Now it was obvious to Sakura; something was going on.

"I see." Heike replied tactfully. Closing his book, he turned away and waved for Nenene to follow him. "I daresay we should file some kind of complaint against Ms. Gombe over there. It seems she's been suffering from violent outbursts lately."

"Bye!" Sakura said cheerily, turning to Toki... Who wasn't there. In fact, now she was all alone in the corridor except for the covering, immobile body of a soon-to-be-fired teacher.

_Great_.

After moving the teacher to a safe place, giving her a pep-talk and accidently crushing her spirit once more by mentioning '_I'm sure Toki won't tell School President about it!'_, Sakura decided it was time to find Ogami. After all, there was something going on with the Code:Breakers, and since _he_ had been avoiding her all day then chances are _he _had something to do with it.

Luckily, Sakura had become somewhat of a pro at stalking recently, and so it didn't take all that long for her to find him. He had managed to find his way to the school roof, despite not having a key, and although it took quite a while to climb up the gutter pipe without alerting Ogami, she eventually made it up there.

"Sakurakouji-san. As usual you're as subtle as Yuuki riding an elephant."

"Eh?" Sakura cried, shocked that her presence had been discovered so quickly. Leaning back slightly, Ogami looked over his shoulder at her. There was a ghost of a smile on his face, but his eyes... They reminded her of the first time she had seen him.

_An eye for an eye,  
A tooth for a tooth,  
And Evil for Evil._

"...Ogami, what's going on?"

The fact that he didn't react to her question- no confusion, no surprise that she'd noticed, no smile- was more concerning than anything he could've said. Fixing him with her most earnest stare, Sakura asked again.

"You're hiding something from me. What is it?"

He hid his eyes from her, slowly turning back to his original position; cross-legged on the flat floor of the school roof, looking out at the city beyond and the students beneath. The way he hunched his shoulders made it seem as if the weight of the sun above was bearing down on him.

A long pause. Too long. Slowly, the hands Sakura had planted onto the floor to balance herself curled up into fists.

"Ogami..."

"It's nothing. Have a nice day, Sakurakouji-san."

He got up, started to walk away. Progress was halted, however, when he felt someone grabbing the fabric round his wrist.

"Please let go of me. Unless you would like to be dragged across the floor?"

Furiously, Sakura launched herself up onto two feet, brows creased and teeth grinding in frustration.

"Don't you dare think you can pass me off saying something like that-!"

When Ogami didn't respond, she took it as a chance to keep talking.

"You, Toki, Heike, even Rui this morning... All of you are acting suspicious! I thought I told you, you're a part of my normal life now! You don't have to hide things from me, Ogami!"

She looked up. Greeting her was a face as impassive as ever, and that was what broke her. It was that look... It reminded her of when they had convinced her to go on that fake 'camping trip', when he had told her he had felt nothing for his brother's death, it... It made her feel weak, and petty, and useless for wanting someone to show human emotions when they'd already sacrificed their humanity. That feeling was something that opposed the very core of Sakura's beliefs, and it shook her. For a moment, she couldn't speak.

The school bell rang. It was time for afternoon lessons. By the next morning, Sakura Sakurakouji was dead.

* * *

Author's Note: If it isn't obvious enough already, this here is my very first fanfic ever- but that doesn't mean you should hold back with any criticism! I've been following Code:Breaker since about chapter twenty or so, but I'm still unsure as to how well I've got the characters down. Seriously, rip me to shreds. It's the only way I'll ever get any better. I tend to write more short stories and vignettes, sometimes with a fairly heavy dose of introspection (read: angst), but I'll do my best to balance any extended thought processes with some nice action to keep the plot going.

But anyway, a little information on this fic~ It'll be about six chapters long, with these two chapters being more 'light-hearted' (haha) introduction than anything else. I'm going to try and update every three days or so. I really like this manga- even though it seems to have become a much lighter shounen in tone than the first chapters promised us- and so I'm hoping this multi-chapter fic'll encourage the tiny little Code:Breaker fanfiction section to churn out some more SakuGami/Osaka goodness. Or something.


	3. Chapter 3: Staccato

**Overture to a Dissolution**

Chapter Three: Staccato

_Be sure I looked up at her eyes_  
_Happy and proud; at last I knew_  
_Porphyria worshipped me: surprise_  
_Made my heart swell, and still it grew_  
_While I debated what to do._  
_That moment she was mine, mine, fair,_  
_Perfectly pure and good: I found_  
_A thing to do, and all her hair_  
_In one long yellow string I wound_  
_Three times her little throat around,_  
_And strangled her. No pain felt she;_  
_I am quite sure she felt no pain._

~_Porphyria's Lover_ by Robert Browning

* * *

The dead of night; even the air itself felt heavy and cold, like a corpse. It was 11:23PM when Ogami finally opened his eyes. He hadn't been sleeping. Spectres couldn't sleep.

Although his flames would have no effect on Sakura, there were other methods. As he had waited for the time to pass, Ogami had imagined them all in his head, psyching himself up for what was about to happen.

He could strangle her; hands around her throat, lightly caressing the tattoo his brother had inscribed on her skin as she breathes her last. For someone who was so outspoken to have the air forced out of her would be a kind of irony, something bitter enough to choke him in turn.

Or, using a knife, he could make a small incision, and then _another _small incision, and then another... He could kill her slowly, and with it kill all of this weakness that had plagued him ever since he met her.

Thousands and thousands of different methods; poison, suffocation, just pounding her head again and again until she wasn't even recognisable as _his_ rare kind anymore... Or perhaps he could just look at her the way he had done earlier, on the rooftop. Maybe he could kill her with a broken heart.

_Sakura... _That melody was in his mind again, threading sweet thoughts into his murderous intent.

Here is what Ogami would do. He would walk, slowly, silently, into her room. Sakura would be lying there, sleeping softly, her breath the only sign she was still alive. That would be good. If he could imagine her as dead already, then it would be easier.

Walking over to where she slept, he would touch her face and run a finger down her cheek, as a lover would. Pinning her to the floor with his legs and free arm, he would lean in close to her, seductively, suggestively, breathe in her scent and whisper into her ear.

"An Eye for an Eye. A Tooth for a Tooth."

Then, using his sword, the one he had used to protect her so many times, he would slit her throat quickly, suddenly, before she could say a thing.

"And Evil for Evil."

She would probably kick and thrash about, but even using all her strength she wouldn't be able to overpower him with the lifeblood pouring out of her. So long as he cut deep enough, any shouts and screams that would come out of her mouth would be nothing but gurgles.

He didn't have a backup plan, in case the cut didn't go deep enough. Maybe he would kiss her. That'd definitely shut the idiot up, until death took her voice forever.

Then he would burn, burn everything she'd ever touched, ever looked at, _everything_. Because they had no reason to exist anymore once Sakurakouji-san was dead.

Slowly standing up, Ogami dressed quietly and walked out into the corridor. The plan he had concocted required that he made no noise whatsoever, so as not to wake any of the other inhabitants. The president, especially, wouldn't be thrilled to know his pupil was moments away from killing his daughter.

But for some reason, he found himself shaking. Ogami stumbled into Sakura's room, cursing the noise he knew his rapidly beating heart was making. He held his sword in his right hand, and used the left to open the sliding door into Sakura room. It would be over, soon.

Drawing the sword from it's sheathe, he paced towards the lone figure lying in the sheets, then stopped.

"What're you doing in Nyanmaru's room, Sixth~"

Despite how shocked you would expect Ogami to be in these circumstances, he didn't show it. Being a main protagonist meant that one's badass-ness increased proportionally with the seriousness of the situation.

And, judging from the look on Yuuki's face, things had just got very serious indeed.

_Looks like I stepped on a landmine,_ thought Ogami, irritated. Carefully, he pulled off his glove and stood in a balanced stance, ready. As the most barbaric Code:Breaker, it was almost impossible to reason with him in this state. To be honest, it was hard to apply reason to Yuuki in _any _state.

"You haven't answered my question, Sixth... What were you going to do to Nyanmaru with that sword? Yuuki doesn't want his friends to lie to him..."

Code:03 stood up, slowly. Ogami, on the other hand, couldn't move. The rage emanating off the boy before him was a palpable force of it's own, and he noticed that Yuuki's breath was already ragged as he struggled to maintain any kind of composure. He hadn't been like this earlier, even though he must've known Ogami had been ordered to do this. Why, then, was he so furious now? Was it because he hadn't been expecting Ogami to follow through? Ridiculous. And yet, there was a childish naivety about the idea that suited Yuuki greatly.

A long pause followed that; the two boys standing there, staring at each other. Yuuki, as ever, was almost oxymoronic in his composition; his body seemed calm, yet his eyes... His eyes were _furious_. Feeling the tension in the air invade his lungs, Ogami's face remained as still as stone.

"I-"

Even before the he had started speaking, Yuuki launched himself forwards fist-first to smash Ogami in the face. Having expected such a thing, Ogami ducked down at _just_ the right moment, a split second in time, rolling over on the floor and standing back up again as Yuuki smashed a hole in the wall behind him.

"Nyanmaru..."

Pulling himself out of the wall, Yuuki staggered back slightly, as if dazed. Seeing his chance, Ogami rushed forward, only for Yuuki to swivel round on his left heel and followed through with another punch-

"Nyanmaru is the friend of everyone!"

-That, again, Ogami only narrowly avoided. It was all he could do at the moment to defend himself, let alone think of attacking. With a power such as Yuuki's, the speed with which one could go from an offensive attack to a defensive parry was instantaneous, impossible to predict.

_Tch._

Yuuki was an odd one; that was for sure. A mish-mash of opposites and parallels, of masks and mirrors placed up so densely round his psyche that sometimes Ogami couldn't tell whether the Yuuki he knew was the real Yuuki, some kind of elaborate defensive mechanism or just the result of a mind so cracked it had started leaking. He was childish and level-headed, yet at the same time brutal and full of rage.

To put it in layman's terms, Yuuki was _strange_, even for a teenage government murderer_._ That was what made him such an unnerving Code:Breaker. Pushing himself forward, Ogami slashed sideways with his sword, reluctant to start using his power just yet. Cuts appeared across Yuuki's arms as he moved them in place to block the blows. His eyes widened.

"You-"

The red-head looked down at the fresh wounds, watching them as they started to bleed. Ogami had cut him. Ogami had hurt him. Not only that, but there was no way he'd snuck into Sakura's room in the middle of the night with a sword like that for _playing_. Not even if it was Heike's kind of playing they were intending on doing.

No, Yuuki wasn't stupid- just stubborn. He knew what was going on here. Ogami was trying to _kill _Nyanmaru.

"You BASTARD!"

A sonic wave large enough to smash the entire outward-facing wall of Sakura's room followed the accusation, sending Ogami flying into the grass outside, slamming onto his back and scrambling to get back up before another onslaught of attacks followed. A ghostly figure-Yuuki- stood in the cloud of rubble left behind. His entire posture was slumped in on itself, body shaking weakly as he tried- and failed- to control his rage.

"Eden asked Kagemaru to do it, didn't they? I hate Eden. They can all go die."

_WHOOMPH!_

Ogami realised he was being lifted. Looking down, he saw a hand holding him up by his collar, felt the strength that refused to let him go no matter how much his legs kicked and struggled, but still his facial expression did not change. Yuuki saw that, and hated it. _Hated_ it.

"You're stupid. Stupid~"

The floor rose up to meet him as he was smashed into the ground at each itineration of 'stupid', just to drive the point home. Gritting his teeth, Ogami flexed his fingers and looked into his assailant's eyes. He didn't speak; words were quite useless in this situation. Yuuki wasn't someone to be talked down from a mood like this.

"Do you always kill people you get closed to?" Yuuki murmured, clutching Ogami's shirt all the tighter. "Is that why Sagishimoro died? I'm glad I'm not your friend, then. Maybe you are as disgusting as Toki says."

Yuuki was shaking, looking down at the floor. He was angry, sure, but at the same time he was obviously upset.

_He didn't think I would do it._ Ogami realised, surprised by that. _He actually believed in me, a piece of trash._

Well, it was his mistake.

Grabbing Yuuki's wrist, Ogami smiled his false, fake, elusive smile.

"There's no 'maybe' about it."

_Burn to ashes._

Flame roared up from his left hand, engulfing Yuuki's arm. The boy cried out in pain, throwing his captive to the ground, and clutching his now injured limb to his stomach.

"Sakurakouji-san is a yet-to-be-seen threat and must be eliminated. The same as any evil. The same as 'him'."

"Liar!" Yuuki cried, and now the fight really _was_ on. Code:03 moved about so fast Ogami could no longer tell what was an afterimage of his super-sonic speeds and what was really his attacker. Most of the blows he fended of using sheer instinct, but there were too many, coming too quickly. His sword hit flesh once or twice, but it was useless against something that moved so fast. Grimacing as he withstood another kick to the ribs, Ogami closed his eyes, and _felt_ the rush of wind telling him someone was coming towards him. It was almost ironic, how President's training would aid him in a situation such as this. How it would help him kill his daughter.

It was over in seconds. Yuuki might have been a stronger Code:Breaker than Ogami, but as he was he was irrational, not thinking straight. By moving his hand to _just _the right position, he could utilise Yukki's momentum, and...

_Smash!_ Yuuki was slammed into the floor, the force at which he'd been moving just moments before sending him spiralling away almost too fast for the eye to see.

"U-Ugh..." Yuuki moaned, trying to stand. Suddenly, however, there was a pressure on his head. He looked up to see Ogami looming over on him, and recognised the pressure for the hand that it was.

"I'll kill you... Sixth..." He panted, still trying to get up off the floor. "Even if it makes Nyanmaru sad, I'll kill you!"

A punch connected with Ogami's ribcage, but he didn't budge, despite the _crunch_ing sound the hit produced. Both Yuuki and Ogami were covered in cuts, bruises, blood... But Code:03 was the one who'd expended the most energy. Ogami had simply withheld the storm, and survived. He was quite good at surviving.

His hand clenched on Yuuki's hair. "Bu-"

"-Rei. I never thought you would do something like this."

Turning around, Ogami saw Rui standing there, shadows slowly crawling up her person. She had probably seen the whole fight between himself and Yuuki, and so was skipping any warm-up and going straight to the empress paradox. Black shadows wrapped themselves round her face, causing the silver-blue hair that blew about her cheeks to seem even paler in comparison. Moonlight suited her; she had always been mysterious, vaguely distant and yet an ever-present comfort. That, and a tyrant when it came to dish-washing.

Ogami was not a particularly boastful or vain. He knew that against two Code:Breakers, he would have no chance. Against Rui on her own, he would have no chance. The fact that he had beaten Yuuki relied entirely on the fact that the boy had been too full of rage to even consider moderation.

Still, he couldn't give up. One thing Ogami was truly talented at was pursuing something with a single-minded determination. He _had_ to get to Sakurakouji-chan.

There was nothing for it, in that case. He was going to have to get _psychological_.

Turning round and smiling brightly (Well, 'brightly' might not be the right term for it), Ogami dropped Yuuki onto the floor behind him and dealt a devastating pair of sentences:

"I didn't realise you cared for Yuuki so much, Prince. You really are a nice person!"

"W-Wha-What!" Rui gasped, completely taken aback, shadows retreating in shock. The calm, cool and collected persona the bifauxnen had been portraying earlier fell to pieces about the floor as a heavy blush rose to her cheeks, and sweat began to rise on her forehead. Ogami gulped quietly, and prepared for the eventual explosion. To be honest, it was a miracle that this had worked.

"I... I..."

Raising his head out the dirt it had recently tasted, Yuuki grimaced.

"Oh no-"

-Rui's head slammed into his and back so quickly it actually made a whiplash sound as she moved through the air, so fast even Ogami couldn't move out the way before he too was subjected to death by forehead. For a moment, everything went red, then he wiped the blood out his eyes and everything was a-ok again.

Well, everything except the headache. And the bleeding.

Recovering, Ogami surveyed the scene. Yuuki was out cold, this being the second beatdown by Rui he'd had in as many days, and the Prince herself was too busy stuttering in the direction of the house to notice Ogami as he walked over and delivered a short, sharp blow to the back of her head, watching her slide to the ground.

_Two down._

Sighing, Ogami dragged the two unconscious Code:Breakers back into the house, leaving them in Sakurakouji-san's room. The idea that no-one other than Rui and Yuuki had been woken up by the ruckus was ridiculous, so he made no effort to keep quiet. Looking round the house confirmed his suspicious. The place was entirely empty; _someone _had snuck Ogami's target out. _Who_ was unimportant; it could've easily been the president, especially considering his close ties with the girl. Or maybe it was Toki; although he tried to look and act tough on the outside, he was all sentimentality on the inside.

_Unimportant._

What was important was finding his quarry. He had grown up on the battlefield, alongside his 'brother', and he knew death. It came in many different forms, guises, games. This type, the death he and Sakurakouji were involved in, was one very familiar to him. The cat and mouse. The predator and the prey.

Searching around, it wasn't long till he found a clue. All the shoes by the door were missing, and the door had been hastily shut; it wasn't locked properly. Rui's motorcycle keys were missing from her room. Ogami searched methodically, quickly. Time was of the essence.

Opening the door, Ogami did a quick sweep of the outside. He hadn't heard anyone leave yet; they were probably waiting for Yuuki and Rui. They'd be waiting a while, if that was the case. Crouching down by the floor, he saw several footprints, leading away from the house. He smiled his phantom smile.

_Wait for me. I'll be with you soon._

_

* * *

_

Author's Note: It's a shame I ended up getting rid of Yuuki and Rui so quickly for this story- poor Prince didn't even get a decent fight in! To be honest though, as 'that Code:Breaker who leaves heaps of corpses on the path she walks', I couldn't imagine any way of Ogami actually beating her without becoming GodMode!Rei or something, especially with Yuuki there as well. I feel like I've neglected our poor androgynous friend, however; she's a cool character (with an awesome motorbike and lost form), though she's not quite as much fun to write as Yuuki is. I'm sure I'll find a way to make it up to her somehow.

Thanks greatly to everyone who's read and reviewed so far; I never realised how addictive watching the 'story traffic' counter could be...


	4. Chapter 4: Minaccioso

**Overture to a Dissolution**

Chapter Four: Minaccioso

_Sie ward geschaffen, Unheil anzustiften_  
_Zu locken, zu verführen, zu vergiften -_  
_Zu morden, ohne daß es einer spürt._

~Prologue to _Erdgeist_, Frank Wedekind

* * *

"Ngh..."

Things were fuzzy when you woke up; as if you were some kind of camera, and had gone out of focus in the night. Blinking the figures around her into definition, Sakura tried to move.

She couldn't.

She was about to let out a scream when Toki clasped a hand over her mouth, sighing.

"Shh, Sakura-chan. It's not that hard for you to keep your mouth shut, right? Honestly..."

Looking around, Sakura assessed the situation. She was being carried by President, slung over the shoulder of his huge catsuit. Behind President, and before Sakura, was Toki, walking beside her as lackadaisically as ever with one hand itching behind his neck, the other clamped around her lips. A small 'fufufu' sound alerted her to the prescience of Heike, out the corner of her ear.

"Maybe if we used a gag..."

Heike was probably doing perverted, because before he could finish speaking Toki had screamed "PUT THAT THING AWAY!" in as loud a voice as possible whilst still whispering. Taking advantage of the distraction, Sakura shook Toki's hand from her mouth and frowned visibly, noticing how she was wearing her school uniform.

"Hey... When did I get changed?"

Toki flushed red. "D-Don't you have more important questions you should be asking? Like 'where are we going' or 'what's going on' or-"

"-Where's Ogami?"

Silence met that question. Stony, icy silence. As per usual, Sakura had struck straight to the heart of the matter. It hadn't exactly been hard to figure out it was something to do with _him_, though. She could still remember the look on his face she'd seen earlier, and the fact that he'd been avoiding her all day.

"He's not here." The President asserted simply, after an awkwardly long period of quiet. Toki fired a glance at him that as if to say '_No shit, Sherlock_'.

Sakura's fists clenched. "Why not? Where is he? And Yuuki? And Rui? What's going on?"

Toki scowled. He couldn't complain; after all, who wouldn't ask questions in a situation like this? Still, it would be much easier if she would, for once, _read the mood_ and act like the meek damsel in distress she was supposed to be.

"Oh, it's a surprise party." He eventually replied. "Don't you know? I thought you were the one who wanted Ogami to 'forge precious memories' or whatever-"

Sakura bit her lip. She hated lies, and although usually she couldn't tell whether Toki was telling the truth half the time she wasn't an idiot. The looks on everyone's faces were much too dire for a party; unless it was a funeral. Ogami wasn't dead, though. She was sure she would've felt it if he had died.

People kept secrets. It was a fact of life, one she had learnt about very early on in life; noticing the way her parents always quickly changed the question when she asked about how they adopted her, the way her father's fellow gang members would never talk about their business when she was around, the way her mind seemed to be keeping secrets from itself at times, locked away in some fuzzy part of her head that she couldn't breach. But just because everyone was doing it didn't make it ok. She still _hated _lies.

Heike checked his watch. "They're still not back yet. That both Code:03 and 04 could be defeated so easily by the weakest of us... Hmph, they'll be losing a lot of points for that."

Toki looked at him sideways. "What're you doing here anyway, Pervert? I always figured you were Eden's lapdog."

Code:02's eyes shadowed over, just for a moment. "Heh... Well, I can't answer that if I'm to keep up my mysterious image, hmm?"

Toki facevaulted, literally. _So creepy..._

Sakura was about to say something, but before she could she felt herself being moved off President's shoulder, and onto... Well, it felt like a seat of some kind. Looking down, she saw she had been bundled onto the back of Prince's motorbike.

"Let's go, let's go~ Heike, you'll drive, right..."

Toki scowled. "We can't just _leave _them, stupid cat. Who know what he'll do to Prince and Yuuki? He was already going to..." He looked over at Sakura, clearly unable to finish his sentence. "To..."

The President chuckled. "I didn't realised you were so attached to them, Toki. Wasn't Prince on the side of those who killed your sister?"

"Hey, leave Nenene out of this-"

Sakura ignored their bickering, instead closing her eyes and focusing on what she knew and what she had heard.

The most obvious thing was that when they said _He_ they meant Ogami. That was an easy-peasy conclusion. And he had... defeated? Yeah, Heike had said he'd defeated Yuuki and Prince, or something. And Toki was worried about what he was going to 'do' to them.

That didn't really tell her much of what was going on- or why _she_ was being bundled onto the back of Prince's motorbike. She wanted to ask again, _what was going on_, but Toki had already made it plenty clear that information was being dispensed on a need-to-know basis, and since she didn't need to know, she wouldn't. Testing her bindings again, Sakura tried to find a weakness, a way out. She _had _to find Ogami. He would tell her what was happening; he would let her know the truth. If only because Ogami didn't care for her enough to try and protect her feelings. You only did something like that for someone you loved, after all.

Toki and President were still arguing about whether they should wait longer for the other two when the door to the front of the house opened, slowly. Craning her neck upwards; Sakura saw a crouched figure examining the floor before him, a serene expression on his face.

_Ogami... That's Ogami!_

He had a couple of rips and tears in his clothing, and some small, bleeding wounds marring his otherwise smooth skin. There was also quite a nasty mark on his forehead.

Despite that, he seemed calm, glacial even. All of a sudden, however, he smiled. A shudder ran down Sakura's spine, as if someone had walked over her grave. She was dimly aware of Toki's swearing and President giving Heike the keys to the motorbike, but for some reason all she could focus on was _him_, Ogami's presence like a dead weight in her head.

It was then she realised what she had always unconciously thought, since she had first met him. Her innocence, at first, had pushed away this truth; after all, that kind of thing only ever happened to adults, to people who weren't smart enough, or fast enough, or to anyone other than herself. Even when she had felt Hitomi's hands round her neck, when she saw her friends encased in ice at Yukihina's call, she had never felt it. She had never felt like this.

From the second she'd look out of that bus window and seen him there, ethereal, incorporeal, cruel, her fate had been sealed. The activity of the last few months had been nothing more than her swansong, her descent from life. Sakura understood now, more clearly than she'd ever understood anything in her life, that she was going to die.

His eyes, as dark and black and fathomless as the man himself, sliced across space and rested on her so languorously that her heart stopped, breathing became ragged. A cold worked it's way from her chest as ice melting across her body, causing goosebumps to rise up on her skin. It was that point when Sakura felt truly afraid, and yet captivated at the same time; by how still everything had become, by how Ogami looked there, a nightmare so horrific he was beautiful- which somehow made things all the worse. That rare kind of beauty reflected what had always been so enamouring about sadness, about tragedy. About death.

_What big eyes you have, Ogami._

_All the better to see you with._

Ogami, on the other hand, couldn't believe his luck. Of course, it didn't surprise him that any rescue attempt involving Toki or the President as main perpetrators was going spectacularly badly, but it _did _surprise him that they had allowed themselves to dither so long whilst waiting for their allies to come back. Allies that, now, _weren't_ going to come back. It showed how weak they had become, how pathetic. Other people were just links made to be broken, to be barely tolerated then thrust aside. Sakurakouji-san always told him he was kind, warm, caring, but in reality he was just following orders when it came to other people. He had been told to destroy all evil, which he did. No-one had ever told him to murder the innocent; so he didn't. Whatever Sakurakouji saw in that was her own delusion.

Speaking of the rare kind, she had been bundled onto the back of Rui's motorbike from the looks of things, and for a moment he found himself fixated by the hurt look on her face- until it was blocked by the large, round, and irritating body of the President.

"President?" He heard Sakurakouji gasp, "What are you doing?"

Unsheathing his sword and miraculously managing to look cool even with the feline cosplay, President shrugged.

"I'm being heroic. Don't get used to it, ok Sakura-chan?"

Ogami let the voices wash over him. It wasn't important, this kind of bantering. He had to do what he had been ordered to do. Pulling out his own blade once more, he stepped out towards the President. Unlike every other antagonist he faced, he _knew_ how to keep his mouth shut.

Toki scowled at the both of them, turning away. "Don't get yourself killed, ok? Stupid Cat. Who's supposed to train me if you go off and disappear?"

A chuckling came from within the suit. "Why, Toki, I didn't know you cared."

"Eh? Look, you shitty cat, don't you start getting-"

CLANG!

Tired of waiting for the banter to finish, Ogami decided to screw the 'Talking is a free action' rule and get started with the fighting. It was appalling, to be honest, that they were getting so sidetracked from their mission thanks to this disgusting sentimentality. Had they forgotten that they were supposed to be protecting Sakurakouji-san?

"Whoa, Ogami, I see you're as stubborn as ever~" Murmured the President in a sing-song voice, having blocked Code:06 with ease. "I've beaten you in just about every sword fighting session we've had so far... What makes you so sure you can beat me now?"

No response. Just a cold glare, and a shift of stance towards the right as Ogami slid his sword in a downwards swoop along the President's blade, stepping forward slightly and following up with an uppercut slash... Which, in turn, was blocked again.

"Come on, come on, I might finish you early out of boredom if the whole fight's going to go like this." Sighed the President, following through with a couple of attacks of his own that drove Ogami back with ease.

Sakura was trembling in her bonds. She couldn't take this. The reason they were fighting, these people who once had been friends... This was because of _her_, wasn't it?

"Stop it..." She whispered, watching as President kicked Ogami backwards, knocking him to the floor. Ogami stood up quickly, and _lunged_, slicing straight through the leg of the cat suit, leaving a huge tear in it's side.

Behind her, Heike and Toki got up onto the motorbike, still bickering over who got to drive.

"Look, I have way better eyesight than you, Hentai! It's just 'cos you look older!"

"It's not just my looks that're more developed than yours, Toki-kun-"

"-SHUT UP! They... You... Ugh, just sit behind me, read one of your pervy books and stop talking!"

"Well, fine then... I'll just have to make sure I hold on _extra tight_ round your waist, won't I? Wouldn't want to fall off~"

"...PERVERT!"

There was a little blood coming out of President's latest wound, but for the most part it was only the suit that had been damaged. Both sides were on all-out offensive; slashing, twisting, cutting at each other endlessly. It had been obvious from the outset that Ogami was losing; although President's suit became more shredded by the minute it was Ogami who was bleeding, who was being knocked to the floor time and again, yet getting up every time and continuing on regardless, a juggernaut that refused to stop moving.

President knew Ogami's moves inside and out; when Code:06 decided to go for an uppercut, leaning forwards on one leg so as to feint right, the damn cat was already there, predicting every move, toying with him. Feeling himself pushed back, Ogami regained his stance quickly, panting. Adrenaline was enough to keep the pain at bay, but that didn't make it any easier to move with all the cuts, blood and bruises covering his body. He raised the blade once more; holding is steady, level with the President's head. Charging forward, he braced himself for-

"STOP IT!" Sakura cried, unable to take it any longer. She didn't want to see any of them hurt- would rather _she _was hurt than see _this_. "PLEASE! STOP FIGHTING! OGAMI!"

Everyone stopped. Even Heike, who had just ignited the motorbike's engine after winning the argument with Toki, froze. It was a little embarrassing, really, that Sakura would still hold so true to her killer despite all this, yet at the same time... It was more than a little heartbreaking.

Everyone stopped, except Ogami. He just smiled, and with a movement so languid it could've been in slow-motion, stabbed straight through President's upper right shoulder.

Both Sakura and President's screams were swallowed by the sound of the motorcycle engine revving and releasing as Heike finally snapped out of it and put his pedal to the metal. About time, too.

Watching his master fall to the floor, Ogami gave him a kick, to ensure he stayed down, and watched the small, terrified face of Sakurakouji-kun get even smaller as she was spirited away.

"Ugh..." Groaned the President, trying to get up and continue the fight. Leaning over his prone body, Ogami clasped the head of the suit firmly and whispered menacingly.

"Shall I show the rare-kind your face? She should get a chance to know her own father before she dies..."

President shivered. "No... Don't do this, Ogami. Of all the people, I never would have thought you-"

"-Shut up, Shitty Cat."

Sagging, the President lay on his back, hearing the sound of Sakura's shouting and the motorbike revving getting quieter and quieter.

"She's my daughter, Rei... When I first discovered what Eden were planning to do with her, I was going to protect her myself, run away and find a safe place for her to hide... But then I found that I wouldn't have to do it alone. In such a short amount of time, she's managed to affect everyone... Yuuki, Toki, Heike, Prince... Does this mean she was unable to affect you? Because I won't believe that."

Ogami was silent, refusing to even dignify the President with a look.

_I will... Protect you for sure._

"You must believe in her, Ogami! Sakura-chan isn't evil; she can't possibly be! Don't you hate Eden, too? Don't you... Don't you care about her?"

Oh, he never does shut up. Because, Ogami, it's because he can see the chinks in your armour; he can see that you doubt your actions, your intents. Are you sure you can do this? Are you sure you can kill her? Not just the physical act of killing, either- that always has been easy enough, rare kind or no rare kind. By doing this, though, you defile everything she ever said to you; that you were warm, and kind, and should be a piano teacher. You reject her belief in you, and yours in her. Can you do that, Code:06? President doubts it, and so do you.

"Please, Ogami-kun, don't do this... What other reason for living do you have now, except for her? To protect her? Whose heart cannot be tainted by anything in this world?"

_No_. That song was whispering to him again, only now he could hear discords in the refrains, glissando like nooses stretched round necks quietly wrecking the cheerful harmonies and trills. He would kill her. Ogami would kill Sakurakouji-san because he had to, and because he never did have a choice in the matter. Fate had always been against him.

"Nothing is untaintable." Ogami stated. "Sakurakouji-san has never been pure, only ignorant to the world around her."

"...You don't believe that." President's voice held little conviction, mostly hope. A desperate kind of hope, for his daughter and his student. "If you do, then I should kill you now."

"You can't kill me, President. You think she'd ever forgive you if you did?"

You fool, President. Ogami's life had ceased to matter years ago. Now he was nothing but scrap, following orders like a man possessed. You thought he had changed? Code:Breakers do not change. They are still photographs; on their own they are insular, unable to escape their own failures. Each one is a self-containing world full of hatred, and Ogami, who killed his parents, who killed his brother, his world is worst of all. You thought one girl could change any of that? Impossible. Completely impossible.

_Buzz. Buzz._

Taking the vibrating phone out his pocket, Ogami raised it to his ear.

"Code:06 here."

"We have a fix on the target. Uploading the location to your GPS right now."

"Yes."

"You're on shaky ground here, Code:06. Surely detaining one girl cannot be so difficult?"

Ogami didn't bother with excuses. He had failed, after all.

"We've sent a team to ensure you go through with the deed. They will be striking at 01:00 hours, so if you wish to redeem yourselves in our eyes then you should hurry up, hmm?"

One o'clock? That gave him about forty-five minutes, minus travelling time.

"Yes. I will exterminate the evil."

"Good. We have a vehicle coming to pick you up now."

Sure enough, a car drove up right next to him moments after he disconnected, the door opening to let him in. Sheathing his sword, Ogami stepped away.

"Ogami..." Murmured President, struggling back up only to fall back down as the blood soaked through the entirety of his suit, weighing it down further. "You won't do this. You can't."

The boy's laugh was nails on a chalkboard; President winced at the sound; it was so unnatural.

"How little you know me." He said, and without a backwards glance stepped into the car.

* * *

Author's Note: I'd like to thank everyone who's read and reviewed this story so far- it means a lot to me to know that this, which was written primarily in my little room in England, has been viewed by so many different people world wide. I find it quite hard, writing like this; when you write your own thing you already know your own characters inside and out but with fan fiction like this I find myself having to go back and check the source material often just to make sure no-ones OCC! On the other hand, I'm surprised by how much fun I'm having writing Toki. Heike, too, though he hasn't said much.

Anyways, next chapter in three days time; then the one after that is the finale. I want to keep this fic medium-length, and I reckon if I went much over six chapters it'd kill the pacing. Till next time!


	5. Chapter 5: Doloroso

**Overture to a Dissolution**

Chapter Five: Doloroso

Ador'd, adorèd being,  
Fairest flower of beauty.  
Though you ne'er must know it  
`Tis for you, my love, for you I'm dying.  
Poor Butterfly  
That you may go away  
Beyond the ocean.

~'Con onor muore', _Madame Butterfly _by Giacomo Puccini

* * *

Sakura remembered when once she walked into President's kitchen to find Yuuki, all alone, drawing pictures to alleviate his boredom. Toki and Ogami were downstairs training, and Prince had been given an assignment to root out some drug dealers who'd been smuggling into the local prison. Usually such a thing would be a job for the police, but the gang doing the smuggling was one particularly well acquainted with the President, and any obvious government action would likely cause deterioration in their relationship. No-one wanted that, did they?

"What're you drawing, Yuuki?" She had asked, trying to start a conversation. Picking up the paper, Yuuki presented it to her.

"Nyanmaru."

And so it was; a picture of Sakura standing there, small and white, with pinkish hair and a huge smile on her face. It looked a child's drawing, of course, but...

"What's that?" She said, pointing to the picture. Behind her pale form was a black shadow, with arms that encompassed her possessively and eyes large and monstrous enough to swallow her whole. It turned what would otherwise be quite an endearing message of affection into something out of a horror movie. She was half expecting Yuuki to reply with something along the lines of 'I see dead people'.

What she wasn't expecting, however, was Yuuki to say nothing at all, and to push the drawing towards her, indicating it was some kind of morbid gift. Sakura looked down at it. The contrast of white on black made it her seem even smaller than she already was.

It reminded her of something... Ah, that's it; _Death and the Maiden_. A young girl with the spectre of death lurking closely behind, waiting, watching for something. At least in _this_ picture she had some clothes on.

"I like Nyanmaru." Was all Yuuki would say under further cajoling. "And I like Sixth. But, Nyanmaru, I like you best. That's why you should stay away from us, even if it makes Kagemaru unhappy."

Sakura laughed uneasily. "Don't be silly. You guys are a part of my life now. Besides, Ogami would probably be glad if I was gone. Then he wouldn't have to spend all his time observing me, or whatever Eden wanted!"

Yuuki had started on another drawing, of a flower. "You really think that? I think he'll be sad. Very sad. Still, you can't live with ghosts forever."

For a moment, it was Yuuki that was upset, making Sakura felt a little downcast too. So, sitting down and shuffling up to Yuuki, Sakura picked up a felt pen and paper and joined in the drawing session, an effort to lighten the mood. Finishing quickly, she brandished her sheet of paper before Yuuki, smiling. The smile he returned made her feel better in an instant.

"So what do you think this is, Yuuki?"

"Nyanmaru!"

"Sakura-chan, are you ok?"

It was Toki. He sounded worried. Of course he did; she'd been deathly silent ever since Ogami and President were out of sight. Partly out of shock, partly because all that screaming she'd just done had given her a raw throat.

She didn't reply because, to be honest, how was she _supposed _to be ok? The motorcycle she was attached to bumped up and down on the slightest fault in the road, and it was giving her bruises.

Realising he wasn't going to get much out of her, Toki turned back to Heike. "We're being followed."

Heike chuckled. "But of course. We have a girl strapped to the back of a motorcycle. You think that happens normally? Been reading too many of my books lately, hmm Toki-kun? Sadly, life rarely follows the logic from such stories~"

Toki stuttered. "What? No! No, why would I do that!" Heike's chuckle made him blush all the harder. "Don't listen to him, Sakura-chan! He's just a pervert."

He didn't have to worry about Sakura hearing them, because she wasn't paying the two any attention whatsoever. Her internal monologue was much more interesting.

_President... Please don't be dead. Please. And Yuuki. And Prince. Please don't let anyone die because of me._

Well, at least, the internal monologue was much more interesting to _her_.

Before Sakura knew it, she was crying. _Toki, and Heike, too..._ They were putting themselves in danger for her sake, even though they didn't have to.

_And Ogami... What happened to Ogami?_

"Ah. We're here."

They drove into an old, abandoned building, hidden quiet well behind overgrown foliage and crumbling buildings. It was tiny, more a shack than anywhere hospitable. A good hiding place.

"They'll find us in no time, Heike. And then what? What's the next part of the plan?"

Heike looked backwards at the boy as he lifted Sakura off the bike and placed her carefully on the floor, leaning against a mouldy wall.

"Aren't you the one making the plan, Toki?"

A scowl. "Great. Well, I need a cigarette."

"Ah-ah-ah~" Heike shook his finger at his colleague. "Knowing Eden (which I do), they'll only send a small group of _especially_ elite soldiers to track us, and possibly to kill Ogami if- no, surely it's _when_- he fails."

"Oh, great." Replied Toki sarcastically. "At least it's not a _big _group of elite soldiers. I don't know _what_ we would do then. Maybe you've forgotten, but my arms are still useless from that fight with 'Him'. How the _fuck _are the two of us going to-"

"Tut, tut, you shouldn't say such dirty words in front of the rare kind~"

Toki threw his hands up into the air, wincing as he did so. "Fine! What're we going to do, then?"

"Toki, Heike..." The uttering of both their names caused the two Code:Breakers to turn around sharply, at Sakura's kneeling figure. She seemed to have suddenly developed a fascination with the dusty wooden floor beneath her.

"I... I think... I think you should go. Both of you. Get out of here, I don't ever want to see you again-"

"Sakura-chan..."

"Just leave me be! I never asked for your protection! You're completely useless, anyways-"

She felt a hand on her head, and looked up. Toki was smiling at her, and even Heike couldn't resist one of his little chuckles. Beads of moisture ran down her cheeks, and she blinked in surprise to realise she was crying. Again. She hated that. Since when had she become a distressed damsel? Since when had she become the one that needed saving, instead of the one that saved others?

_Since forever_, a small part of her mind whispered, _You're a burden, Sakura. Nothing more, nothing less._

"Such a bad liar." Toki remarked, itching the back of his neck as if he was embarrassed about something.

"I mean it..!" She choked, shaking. "You two should just go and save yourselves! I don't want anyone to have to-"

"-Another word and I may have to _punish _you for such insolence." Heike tutted, earning cries of "HENTAI!" from Toki. "Now, I will go and deal with the soldiers-"

"-And how do we know you're not just switching to the winning side, eh?" Toki muttered, kicking the wall. Dust fell from the ceiling above and he swore quietly as it messed up his hair.

"Fufufu, if I wanted the two of you dead I could do it just now by unveiling mysel-"

"-NO! NO THANK YOU!-"

"-Fine, then you can deal with dear Ogami-kun. You're both at about similar levels of wangst, so I daresay your monologuing will last plenty long enough for me to ensure our safety. After that..."

Sakura let the rest of the two's planning wash over her head. She didn't want this to happen. She didn't understand _why_ Ogami had to do whatever he was doing (he was _not_ going to kill her. He was _not_), though she knew it had something to do with Eden, and she didn't know why all the other Code:Breakers had gone to such lengths to rescue her when usually they were all sad faces and isolated co-existence.

Still, even with the small amount of knowledge she _did _know Sakura was sure that she didn't want anyone else to get hurt just for her sake. Not ever.

"I'll fight Ogami!" She cried, trying to fight her way out of her bonds. "My mastery of Aikido-"

Toki ignored her, his attention instead being drawn to the killing intent he could suddenly feel at the edge of his mind. Even muscle in his body seemed suddenly tensed, a coil storing up power.

"They're close. Heike-"

Heike was already gone. Toki scowled. He really, _really_ didn't trust that guy- but what choice did they have? They had to protect Sakura-chan, no matter how resistant to said protection she was. Looking down to where the girl was sitting, bound yet still defiant, he smiled a little.

That song, the one he'd heard Ogami playing... Toki was no musician, but he knew it belonged to her. There was something about the melody's strong and unpredictable nature that lent itself so well to the rare kind.

"No can do, Sakura-chan. Nenene would be pretty sad if her friend disappeared, right?"

_...If you think about it, we've gotten used to her being around._ _That idiot's meddling is really annoying, but it doesn't feel right without her..._

Toki didn't particularly care if he never saw Sakura again, not really. He just wanted her to be safe, that's all. It had been obvious from the moment Ogami had been assigned that mission that things had changed and would never be the same again. There was no point in holding onto these past few months, the closest he had been to happiness in the longest time. It was time Sakura left the company of these ghosts, these non-existent children masquerading as cold-blooded killers, who bore the scars of their past lives as if it was all they had to distinguish themselves by. She deserved better than that, right? She still deserved to live.

"Just hold tight, yeah? Ogami's small fry compared to the almighty Magness!"

Sakura, however, couldn't find it in her heart to agree with him.

Maybe when she dies she'll become a ghost, just as he is, and things can carry on as they were before; her and him, him and her. Then he could play her the song he wrote; she'd laugh and try to coax him into teaching her how to play it, and he'd brush her off, the two of them smiling all the while.

No. He knows that won't be the case. She would be his spectre; blood-drenched, beautiful, unable to utter a word through spiteful lips. Her eyes would watch coldly all his killings, all that he did in the name of justice for Eden. She would hate him in death, like she never could hate in life. An albatross, hanging round his neck; Ogami would bear the weight of what he was about to do to Sakura for the rest of his life. The next time he faced a piano, he knew he would play nothing but silence.

_Ogami... He might be bad-mouthed and cold, and always looks like he is wearing a smiling mask, but... His body... His heart is always bright and burning like the sun!_

It was with this sense of inevitability that Ogami stepped out the car as it pulled up in front of the tiny shack before them. He'd never seen this place before; chances were it was an old Re:Code hideout from Rui's past. That woman always did have too many secrets.

_Only two left now_. Heike and Toki. It was Heike that surprised him most. Of all people, surely it would've at least been him who would realise that from the moment Eden had decided Sakura was to die, she had been dead? There was no escaping from them. They'd even got his brother in the end. Although it had been by Ogami's hand, it was his hand that belonged to Eden. Once you were embroiled with them, there was no escape. Nothing ever changed.

Ogami was a disgusting, despicable individual; or, at least, that's what he believed. He had known that he would be the death of Sakurakouji Sakura, and yet had made only the feeblest attempts to scare her away. Instead of staying by her side, he should have been observing from afar, or so he thought. He could have threatened her, frightened her, he could have hidden his emotions all the deeper so that Sakurakouji-san knew him only as the murderer, as the trash he was. But yet, from Ogami's point of view, she had always resisted these approaches, a slippery obfustication. It hadn't been until much, much later that he realised that the reason she had been able to do so was because his heart had never really been in it, not after the Haruto fiasco. If he had tried hard enough, she would have left, for sure. But he had wanted her to stay.

He kicked down the door. The operatives had already surrounded the house, waiting for the clock to strike

1:00AM. Twenty minutes. That was all the time he had left. Sakura would die by his hand, not by anyone else's. It was part of what he owed her- such a small, small part- for giving him something to believe in after all this time. It was Ogami's duty as the spectre who had smothered her spark out of selfish want.

The shack was two rooms long. No, that wasn't quite right- it was a large room and then a small, closet-esque closet in the back; that probably would've served as a shower or a toilet, had there ever been plumbing done on the place. Sakura had been piled into said room roughly by Toki, and told to keep quiet. Sakura being Sakura, she was going to be anything but.

Deep in her heart, she wouldn't, couldn't believe Ogami would kill her. Even after seeing him... Like she had seen him.

All the people, those she had met over the past few months... They had seemed like disjointed characters out of a utsuge manga; all Freudian excuses, angst and static. Yet it seemed that when she talked to them, befriended them, they came alive; Ogami's stepford smile became a frown, an exasperated sigh, a _real_ show of happiness. Toki's edges and cocky grins became shock, leering gazes and laughter. Rui's loutish glare became motherly, embarrassed, shy. As much as they denied it, the Code:Breakers were all as human as anyone else. Just because they were superpowered murderers didn't mean they didn't have feelings. It didn't mean they couldn't change.

Sakura heard the muffled sound of the door breaking down, and knew then that if she was going to save Toki and Heike she was going to have to scream.

"OGAMI!"

_God, that stupid rare kind! _Toki thought as he saw Ogami's eyes flick towards Sakura's hiding place at the back of the room. They had been sharing a proper dramatic moment, as well; the blast of wind accompanying the door opening had swirled the medium-length hair of both Toki and his rival in an ever-so-cool motion, the two of them glaring into each other's eyes in a way that screamed 'Foe Yay' with every fibre of it's being... And then the _idiot_ shouts for the guy who came to kill her, and _not_ her amazingly handsome, dashing knight in shining armour?

_Shit. And I thought it was just Ogami who was whipped._

"Move out of the way, Toki."

He laughed. "Oh, I don't think so. It's all very sweet that the two of you are so eager to see each other again... A shame I'm going to have to kill you now, isn't it?"

Ogami didn't move; he just stood there, passively taking all of Toki's teasing, not even flinching at the sound of Sakura screaming his name. Emotionless.

Toki snarled. "She's such an idiot. Thinking someone as disgusting as you could protect her."

Ogami drew his sword, making it clear to Toki that the time for talking was over. Probably a good thing; there was nothing to be gained from trying to infuriate someone as cold as Sixth. Nothing but frustration.

"Luckily for her, though, she's got me!" He cried, lunging forwards.

Toki's arms were anything but ready for his magnetism powers, which gave Ogami the upper hand from the start. However, Toki was also fresh to the fighting that night; and although Ogami had had some time to rest on the journey here, he was still cut and bruised all over, slowing him down. Toki, running past Ogami and turning round to face his back, pulled out a gun and fired a couple of shots half-heartedly at his opponent, who ducked and dodged them. One deflected off his blade as Ogami closed the distance between them, punching into Toki's stomach with the butt of his blade-only to find himself pushing into empty space, a small pool of mercury at his feet.

_A doppelganger?_

Toki, meanwhile, used the opportunity to kick Ogami in the back, sending him sprawling across the floor. Sakura was still making a racket behind them, but the pain coming from Toki's arms was great enough to blur even _that_ idiot's voice out.

"Heh, I guess they're still working after all." He muttered, shivering in pain. _Ohgodithurts._

The hydrogenum he'd used began to curl it's way around Ogami's limbs, trapping him to the floor. Walking over, Toki picked up Ogami's sword, and bent it into right angles. His hands were shaking uncontrollably, grip on the blade so weak he was forced to drop it to the floor.

A "World Class iron door bender Champion". He remembered telling Sakura-chan he was one once. She'd believed him, the idiot. Then again, they'd both believed in Ogami; so maybe they were as gullible as each other.

Things should have stayed as they were; without her. The Code:Breakers were unused to change; Toki would always go on protecting his sister, Yuuki would always be lonely and Ogami would always be seeking vengeance. Then Sakura came, and things that had been still were set in motion. Resulting in this. _This_.

"Heh..." He breathed, though it hurt to do so. "...You got beat by a cripple, Ogami."

There was no way it was going to be over that easy. Toki knew this, and yet he was still surprised at the gush of flame that suddenly _whoosh_ed up into his face. Crying out, Toki stumbled backwards just in time to see Ogami break free of his bonds and charge towards him, hand aflame.

Swearing loudly, Toki swerved out the way, pulling out his gun again and firing straight at Ogami's torso... Only to find that all of his bullets were missing the target. He might as well have closed his eyes, the aim was so bad.

_What?_

Behind the door, Sakura shouted and screamed and cried and fought her bonds with all her might; but nothing helped. Desperately, she gnawed at the rope around her wrists, praying she could free herself in time.

Ogami smirked as Toki paled, realising the same thing at the same time. With his exceptional vision, Toki had no excuse for missing all those shots; none at all. Not if he had been shooting to kill.

It was simple; plain as day. Toki _couldn't _shoot Ogami. That was why Eden had chosen Sixth for this task; it took Code:Breakers to defeat Code:Breakers. Despite their insistence to the contrary, they were a close-knit little group. Toki had always, despite his insistences to the contrary, been sentimental at heart. He still considered Ogami as a friend.

_Pathetic._

"Shit!" Screamed Toki, throwing his gun aside and charging at his rival instead, swinging a wild animalistic punch that connected with his face. A _crunch_ing sound came from his arms as he yelled in pain and blinked back tears of frustration.

_Sakura-chan was right. I am useless. Sorry, Nenene..._

Ogami was sent backwards, flailing his burning hand at the same time and giving the arm that hit him an ugly looking burn running down its side. The two stood slightly apart from one another, panting.

God, it was a good thing Heike was outside dealing with the Eden operatives. Had he been with them, he would probably have been in hysterics over how pathetic this fight had turned out to be.

"Just give up." Growled Ogami. "I was not instructed to kill Code:Breakers."

"Give up? When I've been waiting for such a long time to _finally _beat you?" Toki laughed, then stopped as he noticed Ogami giving his arms a concerned glance. _Pity? He's really trying to give me pity?_

Toki had never been all that good at close combat- guns were much easier to use, after all. People like Ogami only really ponced around with swords to compensate for something, anyway. Sure, it looked good; but he himself could never stomach the idea of getting so close to his enemy during battle; especially when... Especially when he remembered what a close-quarters weapon had done to his sister.

Still, close combat would have to do.

Unable to contain his rage any longer, Toki flew at Ogami once again, seemingly going for a punch but at the last moment twisting, turning his entire body in one fluid motion that transformed the punch into a kick- it was too obvious, though, too obvious, and Ogami caught it easily, smirking as he did so, twisting the foot in conjunction with his leg until a _snap_ crackled through the air and the Toki before him melted back into silvery liquid.

Ogami didn't have to see the direction the mercury was travelling to know that Toki was right behind him. Coating his derelict arm in a casing of metal, Code:04 smashed his fist into the back of Ogami's head, the two of them almost blacking out from pain as they both stumbled away, cursing.

Toki recovered first; seeing an opportunity, he went for Ogami whilst he was still dazed, charging through the pain, the adrenaline, the feeling that even if Ogami is finished here it's too late, Eden will come in and they will kill Sakura, erase every single one of the Code:Breakers and start all over again. Find a new set of ghosts. Toki charged through even these uncertainties, a sickening feeling rising up from his stomach.

Still, it felt good to give his father's orders the middle finger before it all went to hell. Nenene would never forgive him, though. Thank God she'd never know.

"OGAMI!" He screamed, lashing out at his friend. The idiot who'd stormed into all of their lives and dared to presume the unpresumable; that the Code:Breakers could _change_... He was doing this for her, but not just for her. Toki was doing this for Ogami, too. The Ogami he had respected; would have probably called a friend. The Ogami who would never have done something like this.

...Ogami turned, saw Toki flying at him, and did the unthinkable. Instead of trying to dodge- which would've been impossible in so short a time- he crouched slightly, and _slammed_ his body into the oncoming Code:04, sending him flying backwards onto his side, right arm crushed beneath him. Red spots burned their way onto Toki's retinas, and he screamed in pain. His vision was blurred; he could see shaped flickering outside the windows of the little shack they were in, sending shadows speeding across the floor- _Eden Operatives? Heike, you bastard_- and a phantom, tall, evil, towering over him with eyes so black he saw himself swallowed in them, saw the horror before him lift a foot and press it into his other arm, causing him to scream again, pain flashing and flaring like he was caught in some kind of nightmarish loop that _just wouldn't stop _

_ohgodohgodohgodohgod-_

Ogami, lifting his foot off the now barely-conscious Toki, checked his watch, wincing at the pain even such a simple movement caused. 12:55. By all accounts, the fight with Toki should've been the easiest so far, yet it had still taken ten minutes longer than Ogami would've liked.

Stooping down, he picked up one of the guns that Toki had cast aside. He would've liked to have used his sword, it felt more personal, more fitting, but it lay in a bent heap at his feet, useless. Things never really worked out the way you wanted.

Again, with the shaking. Taking a deep breath, Ogami calmed himself. It would all be over soon. All of this-

"-TOKI!" Came a scream that made him practically jump out of his skin as Sakura smashed straight through the door, literally _straight through _it, and stopped to see the aftermath of their fight. Toki lay on the ground, unable to move with his face distorted into an anguished, silent howl, with Ogami stooped over him, holding a gun.

_Toki? _She had to help him, call an ambulance, _anything_. Oh God, and he had done this to himself just to protect her... Dammit, if the bindings hadn't been so tight she could've helped him sooner...

These things filled her head until Ogami turned, and looked at her. As if tunnel vision was distorting her senses, everything that wasn't _him_ seemed to disappear, and Sakura found her legs turning to jelly and collapsing, bringing the girl down to her knees. Was she crying? She didn't know, couldn't tell. Everything was fuzzed, folding like a rigid, liquid cold over her senses and body. Toki was far away now. Sakura was grateful for everything he, for everything all the Code:Breakers had done, but she knew her time was up.

"Ogami..."

Sakura's heart seized. She felt ready to throw up, but all she seemed to be able to do was cry. Her entire life, which just a few days, a few hours previous had been stretched out before her, now seemed cut to last only a few more minutes. All the things she would be missing out on; graduation, university, first job, marriage, children... Hell, she'd never even been _kissed_. Sakura was well aware that she should've hated Ogami, for taking all of this from her, for being so inescapable, but she knew it was her fault, too, that things had ended up like this. Besides, she could never be angry at him, because...

_Because you're so sad sometimes, Ogami. What I really wanted to do was make you happy._

It was at that moment, to be honest, that she realised how much she loved him, how much he meant to her. Had Toki still been conscious, and in possession of some kind of mind-reading power, he probably would've muttered something along the lines of 'About frikking time.'

He looked like an angel, you see- even though he was there for the sole purpose of murder. Pale skin that was the paper to his inky eyes, hair. An angel of death, sent down especially for her. Both hot, yet cold. Violent, yet peaceful. Cruel, yet gentle.

Oh God. It was so unlike her, to think things like this. To be _poetic_, to be _helpless_ as she watched him walk towards her, as she watch her inevitable fate take one step, two step, three step closer. She'd never stopped to ask why he was supposed to kill her, why it had come so suddenly, without warning. She didn't need to ask. This moment, Sakura felt, had been coming for a long time.

_Hey, Ogami,_ Sakura wanted to say, _Do you think, maybe, if we had met somewhere else, been different people... Do you think this ever could have worked? Or was this the way it was always going to end?_

She didn't say it. She didn't want to hear the reply. At least... At least it was him killing her, right? At least she could see him one last time before she died...

Maybe she could kiss him, too. Would he let her have that one last wish, before she died? It was unlikely. He wouldn't cry for her, that's for sure.

There was so much, and at the same time so little in those eyes. They terrified her, they drew her in irrevocably. Oh, poor, poor Sakura. All this time fate has been spinning you a web, slowly ridding you of any mobility, any means of escape; so slowly that you couldn't have noticed it happening. Now it's too late, Sakura.

Because you are going to die.

* * *

I've been trying to play around with themes for this piece of writing, to see what I can do with them. I don't tend to write stories of this length, and was worried the narrative would become disjointed if I left it to it's own devices. Anyways, the theme that I've written in big, bold lettering on my planning sheet for this Fan Fiction was that of Operatic Death; hence the references to music, ghosts, tragedy. I think it's fascinating that in Opera, and often in theatrical plays as well, death serves almost as the climax of the story. _Romeo & Juliet_, _Carmen_, _La Traviata_, for all of these it often seems as if the entire play/opera beforehand is just a prelude to the eventual death of the characters. I'm rambling a little- sorry about that. Heck, I sound like I've already decided whether Sakura will die or not!

The next chapter should be out in about a week. Have only three days between releases, I think, had a detrimental effect on the quality of my writing- especially in terms of spelling! The last chapter I was quite disappointed with, but I have a better feeling about this penultimate one. What do you think?


	6. Finale

**Overture to a Dissolution**

Finale

** CHRISTINE: **My God, who is this man . . .  
** RAOUL: **My God, who is this man . . .  
** CHRISTINE: **. . . who hunts to kill . . .?  
** RAOUL: **. . . this mask of death . . .?  
** CHRISTINE: **I can't escape from him . . .  
** RAOUL: **Whose is this voice you hear . . .  
** CHRISTINE: **. . .I never will!  
** RAOUL: **. . . with every breath . . .?

~'Why Have You Brought Me Here', _Phantom of the Opera_ by Andrew Llyod Webber

* * *

And now we're here; this is it. The present, the destination these two have been heading for. And it is Death.

Death.

That's what his footsteps, taking Ogami incrementally closer and closer towards Sakura sound like. _Death. Death._

"Sakura! R-Run..." Chokes Toki, his voice a whisper. Sometimes pain gets in the way of talking, and Toki was experiencing one of those times- his lungs feel constricted, as if a coil of pain is tightly squeezing them. It's a miracle he can speak in anything more than a strangled gasp.

Yet despite his best efforts, the two ignore him- Toki barely even exists to them anymore. Their conjoined fates are all-encompassing; an eggshell that surrounds them. It'd be so easy to break, this shell, this fate, but at the same time it's unthinkable that either of them would even try and pierce the boundaries it has laid out. If a little more time had passed beforehand, if a little more of Sakura's idealism had rubbed off on Ogami, they might have survived this. Maybe in another, parallel universe, they take on Eden together and live. Not this universe, though. In this one they are doomed.

Ogami bends down on one knee, now irrepressibly close to Sakura, so much so she can feel his warm on his skin, his measured breaths on her cheeks. He lifts the gun in his hand up slowly, its gravity not lost on either of them. Toki, somehow becoming even more desperate, tries one last time to affect the metal, to break the gun or lodge the bullets, stretching out one of his arms towards them. But it's useless- he's got no strength left- and what little consciousness he had left he loses.

Sakura meets Ogami's eyes earnestly, feeling the fear leave her. There's nothing she can do and she realises it; this is the inevitable, all of this was inevitable, so why be scared of something you can't avoid? Fear is born from uncertainty, and there is nothing uncertain about what is coming her way.

As cliché as it is, their eyes meet for only a few seconds, but in that time between them passes many things. Hopes, regrets, dreams... All those promises a young couple would make- _I'll love you forever, and always, till the day I die- _are made, though neither of them speak for fear of what breaking the silence would bring. Realising time is short; Ogami positions the gun under Sakura's chin, aimed in a way that will cause the quickest death, and the least pain. For her, at least.

An urge grows within him, so strong he can't help what he does- Ogami's cursed, empty hand reaches out, touches her, and draws a line down the curve of her cheek. His gloves are off. The Rare Kind's skin is much too soft, and his hands much too coarse- he feels perverse, performing such a functionally useless motion. Almost embarrassed, Code:06 withdraws his hand, but Sakura clasps it suddenly, an urgency overcoming her.

"Ogami," She gasps, realising that she _is _scared, scared that Ogami will kill her before she can tell him this, what she _needs _to tell him, what he _needs _to do. "I forgi-"

She can't speak all of a sudden- interrupted by Ogami's finger curling suddenly, violently, around the trigger and sending a bullet into the back of her skull. Just like that, it's all over. Finished. Sakura's hand grows limp, grip letting go of her murderer. She never did get that wish of hers, not any of them. Ogami himself is shocked that it was so easy, in the end. Surely there should have been more to it?

He remembers feeling this once before, after killing Code:Seeker, his brother. Empty. So much build up, so much fear and violence and love and this was all it took?

It would be nice to say that all Sakura saw were Ogami's eyes, or something equally romantic, as her vision slowly faded to black. Their story has had enough clichés in it already, however. Things don't happen so smoothly and slowly in reality; her death was much too quick, a shock, and her gaze is directed at the Eden operatives charging into the shack at the sound of gunfire, expecting a fight but finding instead a bloodstained ceiling and a room full of ghosts. She stops seeing in an instant, barely even noticing her own passing.

Feet trample the creaking wooden floor as the Eden Operatives rush around, checking windows, doors, and the small side room to the back of this run-down shack. They pick Toki up, drag him off into a car- his unconscious state means he resists much less than Heike did- and drive away, presumably for medical treatment. Even if he betrayed Eden once, they know how to make it so he won't betray them again. He'll measure out their justice, till death does them part.

Ogami, meanwhile, sits there maybe a little bit longer than he should have; Sakura's body has sunk forward, laid itself to rest with its forehead on his chest. Perhaps some of that warmth she was always talking about would help her, heal her, like some deus ex machine out of a shounen manga. He stays a little longer, just hoping, hoping that maybe his tiny little fantasy will come true. It doesn't.

Things were moving around him; making noise, too much noise- didn't they know Sakurakouji-san was dead? Didn't they know what this meant? Slowly, it dawns on Ogami, that things are over now. His brother is dead, Sakura is dead, his friends... Though he killed none of them (even the President's wound was non-fatal; he had made sure of it), they would never speak to him again, and vice versa.

Why was he even human anymore? That was the question Ogami asked himself now. Trash. That was what he had always been. A discarded husk. A ghost. The more he considered it now, the more he came to realise the truth; he was no human anymore. Humans are concerned with the past, the future, and it pained Ogami to even consider such things. Humans feel, and Ogami felt nothing, he felt numb.

Humans cherished the things they loved, protected them, kept them close- and look what Ogami had done.

He was just an instrument, now; a tool for Eden's tunes. That was all he really had left. Then again, it was unlikely they would let him live much longer, now they knew he could take on so many of the other Code:Breakers and win. They had an immense dislike for his Code:Emperor arm, too- a few months, tops, was probably all he had left. It was all inevitable.

Eventually, he got back up, and the corpse at his feet slid off him and fell to the floor, to be quickly recovered by the Eden operatives and ferried off for testing. Ogami made no move to stop them. His eyes were dead. His face was dead. He was dead.

* * *

_I hate objects. People die, but objects remain._

One night, a few weeks in the future, a ghost will walk into Shibuya mansion. Seeing it, you would think it was once a man; it has legs, arms, it breathes, though you have never seen a man hold himself like this ghost does, so utterly devoid of anything. He has reverted to the person he once was, this ghost; though now he is less of a man than he ever was before. The last few months of his life are now a blank slate he finds himself barely able to remember.

What he does remember, though, is this building. It's empty now; whatever memories were made here have been abandoned- perhaps with shame, with guilt, with regret, who cares. He remembers that this building should no longer exist. He hates this building.

_Burn_.

The fire starts as soon as his hand touches the front door; it spreads through hallways, into rooms, destroying dust-covered artifacts and furniture. It spreads quickly; becoming almost pyre-like as high-rising flames lick the night sky. It's beautiful.

The ghost watches his creation for a moment, feeling a strange twist of irony as the rhythm of the fire's cracking reminds him of a song he once heard. His fingers twitch slightly, as if feeling something. As if.

Then he turns away, and disappears back into the night.

* * *

Author's Note: I apologise for the delay; despite the fact that this was my shortest chapter so far, it was the hardest to write. There are at least two other endings which I have written, but in the end it was this ending which I felt suited the tone and themes of OtaD best. I might publish up the other two chapters at some point- they're a bit less depressing, mainly, rather than leaving them on my hard drive to collect digital dust!

I'd like to thank everyone who has read and reviewed this, my first-ever fanfiction. It's been both more fun and a lot more difficult than I anticipated- I never realised that watching viewcounts rise was so addictive! My hope is that this will inspire Code:Breaker fans to start writing some more multi-chapter fics in this mini little fandom to help it grow; 'cos it's got some really amazing fics already, and I personally can't wait for more, especially after reading the latest raws. Till next time, I guess! Hopefully it'll be something a little cheerier...


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